‘If you drop the hard carcass of the front tyre and it exploded on the straight

Aerodynamics has taken over MotoGP in recent years, largely due to the pioneering solutions often introduced by Ducati. One thing leads to another, and nowadays aerodynamic components, like small wings, are indispensable. At the same time, other areas of the bike suffer – namely the tyres, which have to deal with a different type of stress. Roland Berger, director of the FIM technical commission, addressed these aspects.

The official discussed on SPEEDWEEK.com about the impact of aerodynamics on the bike and tyres, noting that the front wheel is subject to greater loads. Moreover, he explained the wings: ‘We have increased the power a lot, which means that we can finally reach a speed of 366km/h. It doesn’t do any good because no spectator can see the difference between 340km/h and 360km/h, but it’s good. This is where aerodynamics comes into play: if you want to be twice as fast, you need to have four times more power. Aerodynamics has also become an issue in braking. […]. The [front] wing pushes the bike out in the curve: it wants to escape in the front. To ensure that this understeer happens in a balanced way, rear wings were used. Before, the riders only had to compensate for the push out of the curve, and that was acceleration – which, as we know, doesn’t always work well. In any case, aerodynamic kits have improved more and more, and last year a front tire exploded at over 300km/h during a pre-season test. And nobody really needs that’.

Berger then emphasized that the tires suffer from the aerodynamic phenomenon, and Michelin is not to blame when things go wrong: ‘The result is the current front tyre with its hard carcass, which has a very small temperature window to operate. But what would be the alternative? If you drop that hard carcass, and the tire exploded on the straight at Mugello, you would fly to Florence. Michelin was a victim of circumstances. Or, rather: with which very few are happy. But everyone is falling down, including the Ducati riders. The world champion is the one who falls the least. Tyre production is a wildly complicated process’.